Pretty Christmas Bird

Hey, y'all! Awhile ago I fell in love with the adorable images by Victoria at Victoria Case Art Designs, and today I have the honor of being the Guest Designer for the VC Stamp Challenge. The challenge is a color challenge - dark blue, light blue, and white or ivory, and it's also a Christmas in July theme. I decided that "Pretty Bird" would work out nicely for a Christmas motif and also for the blues and white/ivory. I made my poinsettia ivory instead of red and painted it with Buttercream Shimmerz. The snowflakes are stenciled in Brocade Blue from punching out the snowflake with my MS punch. The bow was done with my Bow Easy from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon Store. He was so much fun to color and I think he makes a darling Holiday card. Hope you like him. Be sure to check out what the rest of the DT did for this week's challenge and then I hope you'll join us. Happy Thursday to you!

More of "Mo"

Today's post is a "twofer." I usually don't post two cards together but these are both by the same talented artist (see link below) and they're both so very different. The first features our wonderful ol' gal Mummo again, and this time she's off on a joyous bike ride. Ya gotta love the spunk this gal has. I again paper-pieced her skirt and tried to make it something that looked like what she would wear.








The second card is Harvest Dance, and this was quite a contrast from Mummo but fun to color. My light box only has one light that is operational so I'm sorry that my pics don't capture all the color that I can see in person. Maurie Manning, "Mo" of "digital pencil too", has some great artwork to offer as many of you have already found and commented on. I hope you like my rendition of these two great works and be sure to check out her store for more great images. Also, don't forget the first FREE digital image and challenge coming Monday to "There's Magic in the Air." Thanks, as always, for dropping by and have a wonderful day.

Exciting Announcement!!

I am very excited to tell you about a new blog starting up with brand new artwork being offered by artist Nina May ("Having an Art Attack."). All images are original designs by Nina and they will be offered at first in digital stamp format with FREE weekly, limited original digital stamps. They can be found at There's Magic in the Air (link also included in sidebar). Each Monday a new challenge and FREE digital stamp will be released for that week along with inspiration by a wonderful DT and Guest Designers. I am very excited an honored to be a Guest Designer for the first month of this exciting venture. Nina is offering a small giveaway to the winner of a random drawing of the participants of each weekly challenge. The future holds more digital stamps by Nina for sale as well as photo polymer stamps. I know you're going to love the wonderful images she has come up with, and our first official post and challenge begins next Monday, August 3 so be watching!! Also, there is free blog candy giveaway being drawn on July 27 and August 27, so be sure to get in on your chance to win this super package that Nina put together. I hope you had a wonderful and restful week-end. I'll be back soon with my week-end's endeavors that I hope you'll like.

Kick up Your Heels

A few days ago I learned through my co-DT member Jane Wetzel of a new digi-stamp artist by the name of Maurie J. Manning, who's link is also in the side bar, and I took a look at her artwork and immediately loved it. She has children's books out, which you can read about on her blog, and I'm loving her designs. I made my initial purchase and this is one of her designs called "Mummo Dancing." I explained to her in an e-mail that one of the drawbacks I find to digi-stamps (one of the few) is that you can't efficiently make use of part of the image for paper piecing because you don't have the stamp to just stamp off a small section. Thus, you end up wasting more DP than you would like. However, with not too much waste I managed to print out Mummo's skirt on this fun paper that I recently got from Taylored Expressions. Mummo is definitely a senior that's having a good time and I decided that a computer-generated sentiment should go with this saying "Kick Up You Heels." It could go with birthday or any kind of celebration. The yellow dot paper in the background is from my Cosmo Cricket "Early Bird" paper kit that I just received and there are some awesome papers in this kit. I'm really liking her artwork and I'm sure you'll be seeing more of it, not only from me but from lots of fans who can't resist her work. The artwork available to us stampers is amazing and so varied and I love so very much of it. What a wonderful community to be part of. Thanks for dropping by and have a delightful week-end.

HM Happy Summer White on White Challenge

This week's HM challenge is brought to us by Carolyn (who BTW is celebrating her blogiversary with blog candy) and is the reverse of last week - remember how we couldn't color our images last week, but we could use color in any other element? Well, this week we can only color our images and have only white for the rest of the project. Arrgghh! This was tougher for me than last week's, but that's what a challenge is for, right?! I came up with this happy little Mudpie in a Citrus Bath and since he looks so cool and refreshed, it had to say something about summer. I used my Label One Nestie to cut him out and yes, it is slightly askew. I though about making the Nestie upright and suggesting that Mudpie might be a bit tipsy, but I decided that perhaps it's just lemonade and left the image upright. I used my Tiny Bubbles embossing folder for the background, a MS border punch for the bottom and colored three extra lemons for accent. The flower is punched with a MS punch and I put my new SU jumbo brad in the center. Hope you like it - I'm pleased with how it came out. Be sure to check out what the rest of the DT did for the challenge, and don't forget to stop by Carolyn's blog and check out her Blogiversary post. I hope you're having a wonderful week. Thanks for stopping by.

Just Sittin' Around in Orange and Pink

This card is for VC's Stamp Challenge this week, which is a color challenge using bright orange and hot (or dark) pink and white. I love this monkey - he's called "Monkey Flowers" and is available both as a digitial image and rubber stamp. I colored him with my Copics and used SU's "Sweet Always" and "Summer Picnic" DP's for my papers. The sentiment is from AMuse Artstamps, mounted with dimensionals and embellished with half-pearls. I think this little guy just looks so cute and totally cool. The DT came up with some great cards so be sure to take a look if you can. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Cute in any Color

Today's post features a House Mouse - YAY! (haven't done one in awhile) - for this week's challenge which is NOT TO COLOR THE IMAGE! Eeek!.....but this image actually lends itself to not being colored and I've already used it on the envelope of several get well cards. So, I made my card pretty much colorless, but I love it. My DP is Jenni Bowlin from Fourishes. My sentiment for the inside is from AMUSE Art Stamps and it say's "...feeling a little better?" Thanks, America, for the challenge. Not coloring a HM image is not easy, so thanks for the stretch. The DT did some great cards, as always, so be sure to check them out. Happy week-end and thanks for stopping by.

Sweet Hello

I just love this WOJ image (sent to me by Nancy) and I got out my Copics and finally colored it to participate in this week's WOJ challenge. The challenge this week is piercing, and hopefully you can see that the scallop on the bottom is pierced, (a Spellbinders Piercerabilities) as well as the photo corners at the top. I also wanted to do the sketch from Mojo Monday, so I did my best to make this a "twofer." Because the image is a bit large, my scalloped band ended up all the way at the bottom, but I think it still counts. I like how it turned out so I'm going with it. The DP is actually a print-out of a DP from a digital scrapbooking download from Digital Freebies, and by-the-way, they have an awesome new set out called Arizona. I wanted to work in this paper because I loved the colors in it. My ribbon is from Sharon Johnson's Ribbon Store and I love it and made the teeny, tiny bow with my Bowmaker, also from her store. The flower was also sent by Nancy - thank you so much Nancy - and I stamped the sentiment and flowers in the background from Flourishes Sweet Violets set. I think I've covered my bases. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Copic Creations Challenge #8

Well, here it is the middle of July already and it's time for our eighth Copic Creations Challenge. The theme for this challenge is Botanicals, and our sponsor is Flourishes. My card is made with the Stamp Simply Thank You set from Flourishes. I began by brayering my CS with Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue and Amethyst. I then stamped the "Thank You" sentiment and one tulip on the brayered CS and then colored three more tulips in the various colors, cut them out, and adhered them with dimensionals. (Please check the CC site for colors used.) I stamped the main Thank You sentiment and cut it out with a Labels Four Nestie, sponged lightly with Amethyst. Flourishes has some beautiful botanical stamp sets, and the CC DT has done some beautiful cards featuring their sets, so be sure to check them out and then grab some Copics and play along.
One more thing.....I have a new logo on the left side of my blog titled TMITA, and if you click on it you can participate in a chance to win some fabulous blog candy. The blog candy is from the very talented Nina of Having an Art Attack, and I encourage you to check out what she's giving away. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you're having a wonderful week.

Sugar and Spice

I had some new things to play with, plus a need for a baby girl card, so here is what I came up with. I used Crafty Secrets' "Baby Girl" set and stamped the buggy with "Frayed Burlap" Distress Ink on a Labels One Nestie. I used a SU Colorless Blender to color in Pink Pirouette on the buggy. I then cut out the next size Label One Nestie and sponged it faintly with the "Frayed Burlap" and stamped the roses in the corner. I mounted the buggy with dimensionals in an offset manner on top of the larger cut-out. I used my Textile Embossing Folder on the Pink pirouette paper and then brayered the "Frayed Burlap" on top of that. This was mounted on a piece from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie and all of it on top of Close to Cocoa. There is one more piece of Pink Pirouette behind the Label One group stamped with some cute images from the same set and I added the smallest Pink half-pearls to the scallop at the bottom. I also used my new "Tulip" Borderabilities and ran my new Pink Satin ribbon through the punched-out tulips. The sentiment is "By Ones and By Two's" by SU. I love the satin ribbon and you can find it here. I really enjoyed making this and like how it turned out. I hope you like it too. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful week. Don't forget the next Copic Creations challenge starts on Wednesday.

Child's Play

I don't know about you, but when I was young I spent hours on my swing. I can remember waking up before anyone else and going out and swinging. When I saw this digital download at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps I had to get it. I used papers from PTI including her paper-pieced dress. I used my oval Just Rite stamper for the sentiment and decorated scalloped edge and sponged it with River Rock. I attached some half-pearls and a few buttons next to the Nestie Lables One die cut and I liked it - simple, but it sure reminded me of those fun days. Yesterday I learned of a vendor called Stampscapes after looking at Scenes by Sandy ( thank you to Jenny Gropp for mentioning her in yesterday's post) and now I'm off in orbit. OMG, how incredible! It's a whole different dimension, but I'm aching to try her techniques. Hope your week is going well. See you again soon and thanks for stopping by.

Classy and Fabulous

Happy Birthday, Morgan! We love you and we're so proud of both you and Dan. So glad you'll be home soon. Hope your day is as fabulous as you are.
Today is our youngest DIL's birthday and she is what the title of the post says. She is far, far away in the UK and we are thrilled that she and our son will be moving back home in a month, so I am saving her card and present for when she gets home. This, however, is her card and I'm going to tell her she can see it here. My son finished up research that he did at Oxford on a scholarship. He will return home with a PhD in Biochemistry and we are very proud of him. Our DIL has had a fabulous job working with Harley-Davidson and has also finished up her English degree online while over there so she, too, is returning having earned her second degree, her first being in music. They'll be home a few days and then head off to start Medical School for my son and hope that my DIL can find a job while he goes to school. A little info on the card.....the image is "Suzie Q" from In-Style Stamps. The papers are from the June "Key Ingredients" kit from Taylored Expressions, and the little packaged-brad is from "Sweet Treat Boutique Brads" from Taylored Expressions. The sentiment is from "She's a Lady" from There She Goes. She is colored with Copics to match the fun DP from the kit. I made a double bow with my new "Bow Easy," (more about that later.) Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week.

Fun at the Beach

Today's card was a fun card to do and I loved these images because they remind me of my three little ones (well, now there are 4, but couldn't work in the baby just yet) who live here and love the pool and the beach. The images are Sugarplums from C.C. Designs and they are called Seashell Trevor, Surfer Emma and Bathing Beauty Emma. I made my waves, sun and sand, added a sandcastle and sentiment from Gina K's Lazy Days of Summer and a "pet" crab from A Muse Artstamps. I attached a sheet of acrylic over the top for effect and to protect all the images that were adhered to the card. I'm loving working up the summer images, and believe me, it's definitely summer here. You can find this happy little trio here at All That Scraps. KL Stampin' and Scrappin' also has a few here. I hope you have a happy and safe "4th" and happy stamping, whenever you get the time.

Copic Creations Challenge #7

Welcome to our 7th posting of the Copic Creations Challenges. The theme for this one is brunettes and Diana Crick is providing our prize which is a Scor-Pal. This time our DT member Jami turned us onto the line art drawings of some wonderful artists. The artist for this line art is from Spain and can be found here. This is not something I would typically do, but I was fascinated with how gorgeous her drawings were and decided to stretch myself for this challenge. I also did another card, much more typical of me and you know how much I love Victoria Case Art Designs anyway. Be sure to look at the other entries from our wonderful DT because 3 of the girls did one of these line art drawings and they're absolutely beautiful. We also have some adorable Tildas from other DT members. The "brunette" Copic colors I used for "Enchanting" were Y21, E25, E27, E29 and E33. The colors for the VCAD image are R02, E25, E27, E33. I used Basic Grey's Marrakech for the DP's - I'm loving the colors in those papers. I love the way I can blend with my Copic markers - I really enjoy working with them. I hope you'll join us for this challenge. Thanks for stopping by and please be assured that I am always encouraged by your comments.